How Costpoint Time Collection Works
The process generally begins when employees enter hours for a defined work period. Each entry is associated with the appropriate project, task, charge code, labor category, and other required attributes. Supervisors or designated approvers then review submitted time before it moves into downstream accounting and payroll processes.
Costpoint can apply configured rules to help organizations standardize time entry and approval workflows. Finance teams can use the resulting records to allocate direct and indirect labor, monitor project performance, support billing, and maintain an audit-ready record of labor activity.
- Time entry: Employees record hours against authorized projects and charge codes.
- Validation: Entries are checked against configured rules and required fields.
- Approval: Supervisors review and approve submitted labor records.
- Accounting: Approved hours flow into payroll, project accounting, billing, and reporting processes.
Core Components of Time Collection
Effective Costpoint time collection depends on consistent master data and clear transaction controls. Charge codes identify where labor should be recorded, while projects and tasks provide the organizational structure needed to track contract activity. Labor categories can further distinguish the type of work performed and support contract-specific costing and billing requirements.
Employee and project assignments are also important because they help ensure that workers can select the appropriate destinations for their hours. Approval workflows provide an additional control by establishing who reviews submitted time and when records become available for downstream processing.
Customer Data Collection is a related business process that can support broader finance workflows, particularly where customer information must be gathered and maintained alongside operational or billing records.
Why Accurate Time Collection Matters for Project Finance
Labor transactions recorded through Costpoint can affect project cost reports, contract billing, revenue analysis, indirect cost allocation, and management reporting. When employees consistently record time against the correct project and task, finance teams gain a clearer view of how labor resources are being consumed.
Time records can also contribute to cash flow visibility when approved labor supports billable activity and customer invoicing. Reliable labor data helps finance teams connect operational work with billing schedules, working-capital planning, liquidity monitoring, and forecasting decisions.
For organizations managing multiple contracts, consistent time collection also helps compare planned and actual labor usage. This can support decisions about staffing, project budgets, billing status, and contract performance.
Time Collection Across the Procure-to-Pay and Finance Workflow
Although time collection primarily captures labor, it can intersect with wider financial workflows. For example, procurement teams may connect labor-related activities with a purchase order when external services or approved project resources are involved. Clear links between requisitions, approvals, purchasing records, and project accounting can improve spend visibility and procurement controls.
Finance teams may also use sales tax validation processes when taxable services, customer billing arrangements, jurisdiction rules, exemptions, or related transactions need review. The exact treatment depends on the transaction, customer, contract, and applicable tax requirements.
Integration and Automation
Costpoint time collection becomes more useful when approved labor information can move reliably into related finance and operational systems. integrations with leading ERPs and other business applications can support synchronized data exchange for accounting, payroll, project management, billing, and reporting workflows.
The Hyperbots Platform can support finance automation by connecting AI-driven document processing and ERP workflows with broader accounting operations. For organizations using Costpoint alongside automated finance processes, this type of connectivity can help teams work from consistent transaction data across related processes.
Time collection can also complement downstream receivables activities. AR Automation Software can automate manual collection followups and matching of payments with invoices to reduce DSO by 40% and reconciliation cost by 80%, connecting accurate operational records with receivables execution.
Within receivables, collections workflows can prioritize customer follow-ups, payment promises, and dunning activity, while cash application workflows can match bank files and remittances to invoices, post receipts to the ERP, and route exceptions. These processes become particularly relevant when project billing generates customer receivables that must be collected and reconciled.
For organizations exploring the broader relationship between Costpoint and finance automation, How Hyperbots AI Agents 10x Deltek Costpoint Finance examines automation across areas such as customer payment matching, remittances, unapplied cash, deductions, and receipt posting.
Best Practices for Costpoint Time Collection
Organizations can strengthen time collection by establishing clear policies and aligning system configuration with actual contract and project requirements. Employees should understand which charge codes to use, how to record corrections, and when submissions are due.
- Maintain accurate employee, project, task, and charge-code assignments.
- Define consistent submission and approval deadlines.
- Review unusual, missing, or incorrectly coded time before posting.
- Separate billable, non-billable, direct, and indirect activities according to organizational policy.
- Use reporting to identify recurring corrections and improve training or configuration.
- Maintain clear approval records to support financial controls and audits.
Organizations can also monitor Collection Cycle Time when evaluating how quickly information moves from initial collection through validation, approval, and downstream financial use. Shorter cycle times can improve the availability of current operational information for management reporting.
Summary
Costpoint Time Collection provides a structured process for recording employee labor against projects, tasks, contracts, and charge codes. Accurate entries and timely approvals support project accounting, billing, payroll, contract reporting, and financial performance analysis. When connected with broader finance systems and workflows, time collection can provide dependable labor data for operational decisions, billing processes, receivables management, and financial reporting.